The actual number of Covid-19 deaths in Iran may be higher than what has been made public by the government according to a report by the BBC.

According to a BBC report, the government’s own data suggests that there have been almost 42,000 deaths where the patients had shown Covid-19 symptoms up to 20 July. According to health ministry data, the deaths were reported to be 14,405.

The data had been sent to BBC by an anonymous source, the report said. The data included details related to the number of patients admitted to hospitals across Iran on a daily basis, along with other details such as names, age, gender, symptoms, date and length of periods spent in hospital along with underlying conditions patients might have, the report said.

BBC was able to verify certain details on the list that corresponded to the data of deceased patients that it already had, it said.

The discrepancy could be largely accounted to setbacks in testing, as per experts.

There has previously been a conflict in terms of case numbers being reported in the country.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani last month had said that 2.5 crore Iranians have already been infected by Covid-19, and that another 3.5 crore people are likely to be infected, taking everyone by surprise, as per media reports.

The official numbers, however, stood at over 2.7 lakh. This could suggest that the population is likely to develop herd immunity soon.

However, according to a Moneycontrol report, so far there is no data to corroborate the presence of antibodies in Iran’s population.

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